![]() ![]() This repetition hadn’t been planned, and his first instinct was to change the details to make the “echoes” less noticeable. When Chaon was developing the collection, he began to see images repeated throughout. I think the stories are surreal in the way personal tragedy often feels like some cosmic joke, while the tragedies they contain are very much a part of reality. And he thought “maybe we need the uncanny to find a way to express the way it feels to be alive right now.” So Chaon read the stories of Edith Wharton, Elizabeth Bowen, and Shirley Jackson. I felt like “The Bees,” was a breakthrough for me, and after that I set out to explore that ghostly/horror story element…It opened me up to the idea that “literary” didn’t necessarily mean “realism.” “Chabon’s project was to combine so-called literary writing with pulp and genre storytelling elements, and I was very much inspired by what he had to say. He wrote the first story for McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, edited by Michael Chabon and published in 2003. Chilling.Īt the back of the collection, there’s an interview with Chaon where he talks about the collection’s genesis. The cover of the collection depicts a typical suburban house in a dreamscape darkness with only a single light glowing in the window of the attic. Dan Chaon’s collection of short stories, “Stay Awake,” has been described as “eerily beautiful,” “powerful and disturbing,” “superbly disquieting,” and “mesmerizing and gripping.” The book cover’s blurb describes the stories as filled with “scattered families, unfulfilled dreamers, anxious souls–lost, fragile, searching characters who wander between ordinary life and a psychological shadowland.” ![]() A caveat: watch out for the champagne headache if you have more than one.Ģ) I discovered an author who’s view of life is simpatico with mine. Others agreed, though, that it was very drinkable. It wasn’t bad, but my taste buds may have been influenced by the extremely salty enchilada dinner that left me parched and wanting something to wash away the bad taste in my mouth. ![]()
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